Say Anything Blog

Mike Allen from the Politico has a piece out about Fred Thompson, claiming that his $3 million in campaign contributions are too few to make him a serious candidate.

Fred Thompson plans to announce Tuesday that his committee to test the waters for a Republican presidential campaign raised slightly more than $3 million in June, substantially less than some backers had hoped, according to Republican sources.

Thompson plans to make the disclosure in a filing with the Internal Revenue Service, as he continues to operate his prospective campaign as a political organization that does not require disclosure to the Federal Election Commission.

Many Republicans had seen the “Law & Order” actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee as a potential savior in a tough election cycle.

He attracted support from such top-shelf party figures as Mary Matalin, Liz Cheney, George P. Bush and other GOP stalwarts who saw him as a potential Hillary Clinton slayer.

But many Republicans have turned queasy as Thompson has ousted part of his original brain trust and repeatedly delayed his official announcement, which is now planned for shortly after Labor Day, in the first two weeks of September.

Some are already saying a prospective Thompson run is a flop. “I just don’t see it anymore,” said a key Republican who had been extremely enthusiastic about a Thompson candidacy.

“That number is really underwhelming. There were indications it could be double that. They’ve been saying that people were waiting for Fred, and the money was going to pour in. He looks like he’s already losing momentum.”

One wonders if this unnamed “key Republican” isn’t someone working for another Republican candidate.  It’s not hard to imagine someone on Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani’s looking to pop Fred’s balloon before he gets off the ground.

Regardless, there’s one glaring problem with accusing Fred of not raising enough money: FCC regulations.  You see, the FCC states that presidential exploratory committees not raise money “in excess of what could reasonably be expected to be used for exploratory activities.” Just a month ago Fred was being attacked, in the Politico again, for possibly raising too much for an exploratory committee.  This was repeated at Daily Kos and at CREW.

So which is it?  Is Thompson breaking the law by raising too much money, or is he a disappointing candidate for not raising enough?

Further, when comparing Thomspon’s exploratory fund raising to that of other candidates, he compares quite favorably.  Thompson has raised $3 million this first month of his exploratory candidacy.  In that same time frame, McCain raised $258,660 and Giluliani raised $1.1 million.

I understand that people are getting frustrated with Thompson not declaring his candidacy yet, but attacking him for not choosing to enter the Presidential fray as mind-numbingly early as everyone else has this cycle is hardly a black mark against him.  And this attack on his campaign, undoubtedly born of frustration with his hesitancy to jump in, is pretty dang absurd.